by Tricia Barr
“Earlier, back at the lecture hall, I heard you call me ‘Daigra’. What does that mean?” Phoenyx asked.
“That was my sister’s name,” Ayanna said. “You have had so many names in all the time I have known you, but in my mind, you will always be Daigra.” She smiled fondly at Phoenyx, and Phoenyx saw a hint of the loyalty Ayanna must feel toward her.
“So, this dagger we’ve been searching for,” Phoenyx said, “how is it that it can make you immortal?”
“I don’t quite know,” Ayanna said. “With the advent of modern science, I’ve been trying to understand how such a thing could be possible. My theory is that it has something to do with electromagnetism, somehow putting the cells of the body into a state of stasis. There have been studies done on the subject. But without actually having the dagger in my hand, I can only speculate.”
“You said that we have been searching for the pieces all this time? Do you have any idea where they are now?” Phoenyx asked.
“We found all three of the stone pieces. You and Water hid them.”
“And the dagger itself?”
“The elders, now the Four Corners, have always had it,” Ayanna said.
“Well, then that makes that easy,” Phoenyx said. “With the Four Corners dead, we can just go back to the Lodge and take it.”
Ayanna shook her head. “The Four Corners has more than one Lodge. I’m certain that those there that day were only a small portion of their numbers. If the dagger was there before, it’s not there now.”
Phoenyx frowned. She had thought it was all over, that they were safe, but as long as the Four Corners was out there, they would never be safe.
An image from her dream suddenly flashed in her mind. She gasped. “That’s what I’ve been dreaming about! I’ve been having this recurring dream of taking something in Egypt and hiding it, I just can’t see what it is. It must have been a piece of the stone.”
Ayanna nodded. “Yes, we spent a very long time in Egypt. That explains why you are so drawn to it now. It was a very beautiful, lively place. Even with today’s modern luxuries, I miss those times.” She cocked her head playfully. “Would you like to remember?”
Phoenyx was momentarily muted by the question. Ayanna claimed she could bring back Phoenyx’s memories. All of them. Thousands of years worth of memories. Remembering was the only thing she could think about since the dungeon, but now that it was a real possibility, it was a very daunting prospect. Yes, she would be able to remember every encounter with Sebastian, and she’d remember her sorority with Ayanna, but what about the bad things that might creep out of the murky forgotten? In just this life, she had accidentally killed her father, and intentionally killed hundreds of albeit not so innocent people. She wasn’t too keen on knowing who else she could have hurt in a past life, let alone millennia of past lives.
“I would like you to meet the others first,” Phoenyx decided. “Sebastian and Skylar go to school here also, and they will definitely want to hear what you have to say.”
Ayanna smiled. “I would be thrilled to see them again. I haven’t seen Air since we fled the village. What about Earth?”
“Lily,” Phoenyx offered. “She’s going to school at Washington State. We can fill her in on Skype. I’ll call Sebastian and Skylar and see if we can meet up.” Phoenyx pulled out her phone with excitement, eager to see what more revelations this evening would bring. She had no idea that it would be the beginning of the end.
“Wow…well I have to say, I wasn’t expecting this when you asked us to meet you here,” Sebastian said to Phoenyx.
The four of them were sitting in a dim, lonely corner of a nearby coffee shop where Ayanna had just finished telling Sebastian and Skylar everything she had told Phoenyx earlier that day.
“She’s telling the truth,” Skylar said, chin held between index finger and thumb as he stared at Ayanna in awe, obviously seeing visions of her story in her mind. “Amazing, to have lived so long.”
Ayanna looked as though she could hug Skylar. She was warm to Sebastian as well, but Skylar she regarded with the nostalgia of a long-lost relative. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here talking to you. You can’t imagine how many thousands of years it’s been since I’ve seen you.”
“I wish I could show you the same sentiment,” Skylar said. “I am very interested to regain my memories.”
“So am I,” Sebastian said.
Skylar looked at Sebastian. “Almost hard to imagine a lifetime without you. I’m actually kind of sad to know that we haven’t known each other in a previous life for a very long time. But I’m amazed that the three of you have been working together all this time to collect the pieces of this dagger.”
“Ayanna says that the Four Corners is much bigger than just that one lodge we escaped,” Phoenyx said. “I think we should get back on the search as soon as possible.”
“But do we really want to be immortal?” Skylar asked.
“We already are, basically,” Sebastian said. “We live, die, and then live again, it’s a constant cycle. Personally, I’d rather skip the dying part.”
Skylar nodded pensively. “That’s a good point. Also, as it is, I don’t like the idea of not having known you in previous lives; I’m not too fond of the possibility of not knowing you in future lives. This will eliminate the obstacle of any of us having to find each other again.”
“I definitely like the idea of that,” Phoenyx said, squeezing Sebastian’s hand.
“Well, the first step is to unlock all your memories,” Ayanna said.
“I’ll go first,” Sebastian volunteered eagerly.
“This isn’t the best place,” Ayanna said. “The process can be pretty painful. Right now, your brains only have the capacity for nineteen years of memories, and I’ll be inviting thousands of years of memories. The neural networking causes a lot of trauma and takes a lot of energy. You’ll want to be somewhere you can lay down for several hours.”
“Alright, then let’s go back to the dorm,” Sebastian suggested. “I don’t have a roommate, so my room is the best option.”
They left the coffee shop and headed toward the dorms. Ayanna was beaming, seemingly floating on air. Phoenyx could almost see the sisterly ties that bound Ayanna to her, to all of them. The guys appeared to be feeling that bond as well. Skylar was riveted by the possible science behind the dagger’s power, yammering on about some electromagnetism mumbo-jumbo that Phoenyx couldn’t begin to understand, but that Ayanna seemed to understand perfectly well and agree with. And Sebastian was asking her all sorts of questions about their history together, questions to which Ayanna eagerly responded, “Yes, you’ll see soon enough.”
Phoenyx was silent during their walk to the dorms. She was nervous. Of course, she wanted to remember, but she was afraid of learning that she was a monster. The fire power was intoxicating, like a drug, and she could see how easily she could lose control under the right circumstances. But Ayanna clearly adored her over all this time, over all her lives, so she couldn’t have done anything too terrible, right?
They got to the dormitory and entered the elevator, pressing button “3”. There were two men already in the elevator who scooted apart to make room for them. Phoenyx nodded at them politely as the doors closed. One of them kept staring at her even after she turned away. It wasn’t an appreciative stare as she often got from the opposite sex; it felt somehow ominous.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Skylar pull his phone from his pocket and begin typing with his thumbs. A few seconds later, Sebastian’s phone buzzed. Curiously, Phoenyx peered over as Sebastian turned on the screen of his phone and opened the text.
THESE MEN R FROM THE 4 CORNERS AND THEY R LOOKING 4 US. THEY HAVE TRANQ GUNS.
For the second time today, Phoenyx’s heart jumped with panic, only this time there was a true danger.
Very casually, Sebastian put his phone back in his pocket and smiled at Phoenyx as if nothing was wrong.
“Hey Skylar, you know what I ha
te?” he said.
“What’s that?” Skylar asked, calm as ever.
“People who don’t know when to quit,” Sebastian replied, and with that, the two of them spun around, slipped their hands into the blazers of the two men and pulled out the guns hiding there, throwing them to the floor as the two men began to attack.
Phoenyx flattened herself to the wall of the elevator, trying to avoid one of the flying fists or feet being thrown. She watched in awe as Sebastian and Skylar fought as a perfect duet; when one kicked, the other dodged; when one shoved an assailant, the other caught him and took over the fight. Sebastian must be advising Skylar through his thoughts, she thought. She could imagine this was how they dealt with trouble on the mean streets of Vegas for so many years.
As the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, one of the men caught Sebastian off guard and kicked him through the opening and into the hall of the third floor. Then the man bent to reach for the gun closest to him. To Phoenyx’s astonishment, Ayanna hooked her elbow around the man’s neck, yanked his head away from the gun and brought it down hard into her knee. She punched him so hard in the jaw that it swung in the opposite direction and kicked him forcefully enough that he slammed against the wall of the hall opposite them and was knocked out cold. Like a ninja ballerina, she swooped up the gun and shot the unconscious man in the chest, then turned only her head and her arm to shoot the man still fighting Skylar in the back of the neck. In a matter of seconds, he collapsed, also unconscious.
For a few heartbeats, the three of them did nothing but gawk at Ayanna. She approached Sebastian and offered him a hand, and it took him a moment to accept it and allow himself to be pulled up off the floor.
“That was badass,” Sebastian said at last.
“You don’t live several thousand years without learning how to take care of yourself,” Ayanna said. “The two of you were pretty ‘badass’ yourselves. It was very impressive to watch you work together, using Skylar’s telepathy as a team.”
“We’ve had a lot of practice,” Sebastian said.
Skylar grabbed the collar of the man at his feet and dragged him out of the elevator. Sebastian surveyed the area and ran to a janitor’s closet down the hall, opening the door as Skylar hauled the man inside. Following suit, Phoenyx and Ayanna each took an arm of the other man and pulled him to the closet. Once both men were tucked in, Skylar closed the door and it clicked as he presumably locked it with his mind.
“We won’t be safe here anymore,” Skylar said. “There are men all over campus looking for us, and more will come here soon when those men don’t respond.”
“How do they know what we look like?” Phoenyx asked.
“They’ve all got photos of us on hand, taken from the administration office, which is also how they knew which rooms we were in,” Skylar explained.
“Well, if they know our faces, we’d better disguise ourselves a little bit,” Sebastian said, running to his room.
The rest of them followed.
Sebastian rustled through his closet. He pulled out two hoodies, putting one over his head and tossing the other to Skylar, who was rummaging through the desk to find a few pairs of sunglasses which he then tossed to Phoenyx and Sebastian. Phoenyx put on the sunglasses, then scanned the room for something to put over her head to hide her bright orange hair that was very noticeable from any distance. She spotted a scarf she had left in here a few days ago hanging on the bedpost and wrapped it stylishly around her head and neck, then she turned to the others for approval.
“It’ll do,” Sebastian said, his own face successfully hidden beneath a UCLA hoodie and sexy black sunglasses. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Phoenyx asked, trying to hide how scrambled she felt.
“We can go to my apartment,” Ayanna offered. “They don’t know who I am, they forgot about me a very long time ago. The three of you will be safe there.”
Phoenyx exhaled with relief that they had a safe haven. Skylar and Sebastian nodded and they all left the room and headed to the stairs, opting to skip the elevator this time.
They walked brusquely out into the cool autumn afternoon, the guys’ hoodies perfectly camouflaged amongst the other students sporting their school colors.
“My apartment is just a few blocks away,” Ayanna said. “It should only take us fifteen minutes to walk there.”
Phoenyx slipped her hand into Sebastian’s as they kept pace with Ayanna, and the way he looked at her made her feel safe, an extinguisher to the embers of fear inside of her. The four of them would make it through this.
Four of us…Lily! She suddenly remembered. If the Four Corners was after them here at UCLA, they would go after Lily in Washington too. Phoenyx had to warn her. It couldn’t wait fifteen minutes.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Lily’s number, then put the phone to her ear. One ring, two rings, five rings, then her voice mail answered. Damn. She called her again. Still no answer. She tried to remember Lily’s class schedule, hoping she just wasn’t answering because she was in class. Finally Phoenyx decided to send a text.
CALL ME ASAP, UR IN DANGER!
Concern for herself had completely disappeared and been replaced by fear of something happening to Lily. All she could think about during the walk to Ayanna’s apartment was making sure Lily was safe right now. Phoenyx even considered hopping on a plane to Seattle and tracking her down on campus. Lily was too sweet and innocent to have to go through this again.
Ayanna led them to what looked like a hotel, with shiny glass windows so tall they acted as walls all the way up the ten or so stories. A door man received them at the door and nodded to Ayanna as she entered. The interior was lavish, with beautifully veined marble floors and columns, and couches that looked much more aesthetic than comfortable with carved wood legs and backings.
“You live here?” Phoenyx asked.
“When you’ve lived as long as I have, you tend to accumulate more funds than you know what to do with,” Ayanna replied.
“Seems to me like you know what to do with it,” Sebastian said.
They stepped into the elevator and an attendant in traditional bellhop attire inserted his card in a slot on the button directory and pressed her floor number. Phoenyx felt frantic, like she was going to burst out of this tiny, cramped elevator. She couldn’t stand the anticipation of waiting for Lily to respond to her text. She couldn’t resist imagining scenarios of what could happen to her.
Finally the elevator doors opened and they exited into a long hall with only two doors on each side, spread far apart from each other. Ayanna led them to the first door on the left and unlocked the door to let them inside. Once all were inside, she closed the door and locked it once more.
“I can’t get a hold of Lily,” Phoenyx blurted not one second after the door was closed. “We have to get to her, we have to warn her! I’ve tried calling and sent a text, but she won’t answer—”
“Phoenyx, calm down,” Sebastian said, putting his hands on her shoulders comfortingly. “Everything is going to be okay. We’ll find some way to get a hold of Lily, and then we’ll make a plan to get these guys off our backs once and for all.”
“How are we going to do that?” Phoenyx asked. “The Four Corners is so much bigger than we thought, and I can’t have the death of so many people on my conscience, no matter how bad they are.”
“I know,” Sebastian said. “I would never ask you to do that again. We’ll find another way.”
Just then, Phoenyx’s phone vibrated in her pocket. Fumblingly, she pulled it out.
“It’s Lily!” she exclaimed. “Thank God.” She answered the phone. “Lily, are you okay?”
“Yes, Lily is fine, for now,” said a mature male voice.
Phoenyx’s eyes widened and she felt the blood drain from her face. “Who is this?” she demanded.
“My name is Vincent Mallick, High Counselor of the Four Corners,” the voice in the phone replied, “and I have a proposition for you, Fire. We have y
our friend Lily. You and your friends have five days to surrender yourselves to us at the Prague Lodge, or we kill Lily and restart the clock.”
“Don’t you dare touch her!” Phoenyx snarled.
“She will be perfectly safe and comfortable for the next four days,” he said. “It’s up to you what happens to her on the fifth day.”
“What good would it do you now if we surrender?” she asked. “That solar storm is over, you can’t take our powers.”
“You just let us worry about that. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
His comment sickened her because he meant it almost literally. If she was a cat, she was damn sure going to show him her claws.
“And if we don’t surrender and you kill us, you’ll be back to square one,” she said. “You’ll lose us and have to search us out from scratch.”
“Not exactly from scratch,” he said. “We’ll know exactly when you die, so we’ll know exactly when you’ll be reborn. And we have your pictures now. We’ll only have to wait a few years until such a time when you mature enough to be recognizable.”
Oh God, these people truly are diabolical!
“If you have it all figured out, why not just kill us now? Why give us five days?” she asked, her voice spilling over with hatred.
“We aren’t completely heartless,” he replied in such a casual tone that it made her sick. “We are giving you the chance to put your affairs in order and say goodbye to your loved ones. And besides, it would be nice to skip the decade of waiting that would result from killing you now.”
“You’re disgusting,” she sneered.
“And you’re a murderer,” he accused. “You killed fifty-three people. I’m only threatening to kill four. I’ll see you in five days.” Then he hung up.
She held the phone to her ear for a moment after it went silent, the word “murderer” echoing in her head. Of course, the Four Corners knew that the members of the Utah Lodge had been killed, but how did they know it was her specifically? Yes, she had killed those people, but she never once considered herself a murderer. The word implied so much wickedness. And yet, it was absolutely true.
